Latest Reviews

Ian Olds' loose local-color thriller Burn Country works from the thesis that rural America is as complex and dangerous to justice-minded visitors as the most contested regions of Afghanistan. As Afghan national Osman (Dominic Rains) gets...

Like Ava DuVernay’s 13th, Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro travels a straight, well-researched path from the darkest tragedies of American history to the ones that plague the country today. Both films filter African-American life through the...

As dull and impersonal as a sheaf of open-enrollment insurance forms, Office Christmas Party brings together -- and underutilizes -- several funny performers from TV shows (Silicon Valley, Veep, SNL) that pinpoint what this dim...

Try to watch Matthew Miele and Justin Bare's new documentary, Harry Benson: Shoot First, as Benson would want you to: with no commentary, consideration or delay. It's the same risky, presumptuous way he takes his photos. When Robert...

How often has a mainstream film tackled the real-life anxieties of the kind of questioning teens who turn to Tumblr and Reddit to learn the facts of life? Mostly because it's complicated and uncharted territory, a lot of adults just don't...

The cussedness of La La Land is almost enough to recommend it. Damien Chazelle's sumptuous tribute to romantics trying to keep lit the fire of a guttering culture is defiantly old-fashioned in form and style. It is, among other things, a...

One reason why Isabelle Huppert makes suffering so compelling on screen is her sheer -- well, "unflappability" isn't quite the right word. It's a kind of ironic distance, perhaps: The actress can convey curiosity, bewilderment and coolness all at...

Natalie Portman has had a small succession of parts that have allowed her expand beyond stereotypical female roles, but her Jackie Kennedy, which never gives into the Lady Macbeth insanity that it could have, is the pinnacle of her performances....